Indu Verma, featured ILCC liquid crystal artist, June 2018

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Indu Verma obtained her Integrated BS-MS degree in Chemistry (2014) from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali, India. She is currently working as a graduate student under the supervision of Dr. Santanu Kumar Pal (Department of Chemical Sciences, IISER Mohali). Her research focuses on fabrication and imaging of liquid crystal-aqueous interface for various interfacial and biosensing applications. You can reach her at indu.verma9779(at)gmail.com or visit the website for more details about the research group.
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Organization of a well ordered protein at nematic liquid crystal (LC)-aqueous interface led to the perturbation of pre-adsorbed monolayer of amphiphilic molecules at the interface in a patterned and systematic fashion. The colorful regions (tilted alignment of LC at interface) correspond to protein rich areas while the dark domains (homeotropic alignment of LC) correspond to amphiphile rich areas. The LC was confined within a transmission electron microscopy grid of 20 μm thickness. The images were captured using a Zeiss polarising microscope Scope.A1 with cross polars (×50 and x100)
Jury comment:
A collage of liquid crystal “smilies” is nicely composed and surprises with a rich variety of forms.